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Stories about water issues in California and the American West, including coverage of energy, climate change, agriculture, innovation, water policy and rights.
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Climate change brings new flood risks and new challenges for water storage managers. In California, one local water agency is taking on the big task of modifying its primary storage reservoir to be ready for these changes.
For California’s endangered Coho salmon, just a trickle of water may mean survival in the small rivers and streams where the fish spend their first year, researchers found.
An agreement signed in 1958 and amended in 1980 divvies up the Bear River between Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. If the states find a way to use all their allotted water, the Great Salt Lake could turn into toxic dust.
Drought and wildfires across the U.S. Southwest this summer are a preview of what’s ahead in the decades to come. A shift to hotter, drier weather will also require a change in mind-set for the region’s residents.
The local water agencies that stand to benefit from California’s WaterFix tunnels project have formed a new joint powers authority to oversee construction. Here’s a look at how that will work.
Four groundwater basins in Napa and Sonoma counties may be in worse shape than previously thought. The state of California recently signaled they should be subject to new groundwater sustainability rules.
A pilot program for irrigators in the Colorado River’s upper basin states will not continue past 2018, according to a recent decision by the Upper Colorado River Commission. But water conservation and storage remain a priority.
Eight obsolete dams have been removed or modified on the Rogue River over the past decade. Now its salmon help sustain commercial fishing, despite recent droughts that have devastated fish in other rivers.
In Humboldt County, a conservation group is suing the government, arguing that a new ordinance regulating the local marijuana industry doesn’t adequately address the environmental impact of an estimated 15,000 cannabis grow operations.
The pilot program is kicking off in Ventura County, but experts say that it may be replicated in other parts of the state as California works to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and curb overpumping of aquifers.
The state’s new per capita limit on indoor water use is groundbreaking, but there is no practical way to enforce it. Rather, it is intended to inspire more conservation and guide larger efforts by water utilities.
The Santa Cruz River was once the lifeblood of Tucson, Arizona. Due to heavy development and groundwater overdraft, it hasn’t seen year-round flow in 70 years. The city plans to revive the storied desert river with recycled effluent.
Construction is set to begin next year, but environmentalists have filed a lawsuit over Chimney Hollow reservoir, which would store water for communities in Colorado’s Front Range.
A study by researchers from Stanford University found that subsidence is not the only consequence of overpumping of groundwater – deadly water quality problems could also result.
Many small community water systems in California’s San Joaquin Valley suffer from polluted wells and financial challenges. To fix these problems, some are moving to connect with a neighboring water system. It’s not an easy process.
A horizontal levee built by the Oro Loma Sanitary District in the San Francisco Bay Area helps treat wastewater, provide wildlife habitat and protect against sea level rise. And it’s a model that may soon be replicated in the area.
Tribal officials want the Central Arizona Water Conservation District to continue purchasing power from the coal-powered Navajo Generating Station, but the water district hopes to use cheaper and cleaner sources to pump Colorado River water.
Just how long interim funding will play a central role in responding to water issues depends on implementing long-term solutions to contamination and groundwater depletion.
Wastewater from the city of Modesto, California, was once dumped into a river. Now, thanks to a new pipeline, it’s helping farmers survive drought and flooding new wetlands for migratory birds.
California’s largest reservoir may get even bigger, despite opposition from the state. Some welcome the opportunity to store more water, but others are skeptical it could significantly ease competing demands for limited water and aid fish.
Holding the best water rights doesn’t always guarantee tribes get to exercise them. They must often negotiate settlements that require federal approval, such as three deals now being considered by the U.S. Senate.
Most water agencies don’t think of local water projects like green roofs or efficiency rebates as assets, but now they can. And that means agencies can now access capital markets for funding, which could help dramatically grow these projects.
Volcanically active Mammoth Mountain in California has been home to a productive geothermal energy operation for decades. Now, expansion plans have the local water agency concerned about the future of its groundwater.
California voters will be confronted with two multibillion-dollar propositions this year dealing with water, one on the June 5 ballot and another on the November 6 ballot. While the bond measures overlap somewhat, they also have important differences.
Since 2014 it has been legal to grow hemp, marijuana’s non-psychoactive cousin, in small “research” batches. Legislation passed this year could open the door to full-scale farming of this versatile, drought-tolerant plant.
Just 5 percent of California farmers use cover cropping, but that’s likely to increase as researchers work to quantify the amount of water that can be saved by the practice and its benefit for river ecosystems.
Water agencies in Colorado’s Front Range are proposing new water storage and conveyance infrastructure, but the plans don’t include a new transmountain diversion to pipe water from the western side of the Rockies to the eastern side.
Conservationists in the Southwest are rushing to save endangered Rio Grande silvery minnows stranded in sections of the river that have run dry.
A plan to help fix some of the state’s most persistent drinking-water problems is opposed by many water agencies, but a similar scheme has worked in the energy sector for decades.
A fight over groundwater between New Mexico and Texas is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, but the battle has intensified as New Mexico contemplates allowing a copper mine to pump more than 1 billion gallons of groundwater annually.
Three decades ago, selenium-tainted farm runoff in the San Joaquin Valley deformed wildlife in horrific ways. Amid political maneuvering in Congress to find a solution, the toxin is still showing up in bird eggs.
Lower Basin states can easily store conserved water upstream in Lake Mead, but it’s not so simple for Upper Basin states with major reservoirs below them. There are some solutions in the works, but they’re not easy or cheap.
Despite getting a financial boost earlier this month, California’s project to build two new water tunnels still faces big regulatory and legal challenges.
California already has one of the most variable climates and the swings between extremes will become more pronounced with unchecked climate change, say the authors of a new report.
Californians know another “big one” will be coming someday. In preparation, the state’s major water suppliers have been working to seismically retrofit key infrastructure, but vulnerabilities remain.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority expects growth to outpace current water supplies by 2037. Investing in seawater desalination is one option the agency is considering to meet demand in the desert metropolis.
In the wake of the 2015 Gold Mine King spill, the Colorado legislature is considering a bill that aims to ensure better water quality at mines and more financial accountability from companies.
After 20 years of drought conditions, some scientists are calling for better terminology to describe the impact of rising temperatures in the region.
Stretches of the Middle Rio Grande in New Mexico sometimes run dry during hot summer months, but this year biologists are trying to rescue stranded fish in early April – something that’s unprecedented.
In California’s Napa Valley, voters in June will decide on a ballot initiative aimed at protecting the region’s remaining oak woodlands, which support healthy watersheds. But vintners and farmers are calling the plan anti-agriculture.
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